Animal-trap.



JOI-IN MEYER, OF ELLINWOOD, KANSAS.

AN 1MAL-TRAP.

Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Dec. 20, 1910.

Application filed January 31, 1910. Serial N o. 541,194.

'Fo all whom t may concern:

n Be it known that I, JOHN MEYER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Ellin- 'wood, in the county of Barton and State of Kansas, have invented Vcertain new and usetul Improvements 1n Animal-Traps, of which the following is a specification.

This inventionk relates to animal traps of that class adapted to be tripped by an animal in an attempt to remove the bait, and my object is to produce a trap of this charw acter provided with a flexible body to incase the animal without injury when the trap closes, a further object being to produce a simple, strong, durableand cheap trap which will operate efficiently and reliably.

`With these objects in view, the invention consists in cert-ain novel and peculiar features of construction and organization as hereinafter described and claimed; and in` order that it may be fully understood reference is to be had to the accompanying drawing, in which;

Figure 1, is a top plan view of a trap, broken away embodying my invention. Fig.

. 2, is an enlarged vertical section on the line II-II of Fig. 1. Fig. 3, is an enlarged section on the line III- HI of Fig. 1. Fig. 4, is a perspective view on a reduced scale of the tripping device. Fig. 5, is an edge view of part of the trap in its closed position, to show the catch for holding it closed to prevent the escape of a. captured animal.

In the said dra-wing, 1 and 2 indicate substantially semi-circular rods of resilient material, the rods, when the trap is' opened as shown, being oppositely-bowed so as to conjointly form a substantially circular frame,

`and in the preferred construction each rod at one end is provided with a coil or convolution 3, and at the other end with an outwardly-projecting arm 4, disposed axially with respect to said convolution, and the outer end of said arm is upset to foi-m a head as at 5. The rods are arranged with the arm 4 of one extending centrally through the convolution 3 of the other. From the foregoing it will be understood that the rods sity of making particular kind of rod as would be the case if one rod were provided with the convolutions and the other with the outwardly-projecting arms.

Mounted upon the outwardly-projecting arms 4 between the semicircular body-portions and the headed ends 5, are what may be termed spools, and, in the preferred construction, each spool consists of a cylindrical body 6, and a washer 7, the latter being at the outer end of the cylindrical body and of greater diameter than the same. Preferably the washers will be in the form of separate disks though they may in practice be simply enlarged ends or langes of the cylindrical bodies, and the latter are of size'to lit snugly within the convolutions 3, which cannot slip off the inner ends of the said bodies because the tendency of the ends of the spring rods is to move outwardly, and furthermore because one of the spools abuts at its inner end Y 8 are coiled hinge-springs encircling the bodies of the spools between their flanged or outer ends and the convolutions 3 and in order to obtain the requisite strength without employing wire of heavy gage, the spring-hinges each consists by preference of an inner coil 9 and an outer coil 10, the tei'- minals of the inner coils being shown as fastened at 11 to rod 1 and the terminals of the outer coils at l2 to rod 2. The ends ofthe rods, provided with the convolutions 3 preferably extend in opposite directions from the spools, as arms 13, and terminate in upwardly-disposed hooks 14. The terminals of the hooks project inward of the frames constituted by the two semicircular rods so that when sprung inward, they shall overlap the adjacent partsI of said frame to counteract the effect of the hinge-springs and prevent the closing of the trap, and it will be understood that the arms 13 unless held in the compressed relation described, will spring' back and permit the trap to close, that is, permit the rods 1 and 2, to swing upward into substantially parallel relation as shown in Fig. 5, under the force of springs 8.

For the purpose of holding the trap in its opened position, I provide a trip-bar 15, the same being of length to extend diametrically over the circular frame and overlie the arms 13, the ends of said bar 15 terminating in downturned ends 1G and 17 to engage the outer sides of the spring-arms 13. The down-turned ends 1G and 17 are preferably ot inverted right-angle-triangle t'orm with their hypotenuse edges facing in opposite directions for a purpose which hereinafter appears. This trip-bar, as will be understood, holds the arms 13 against outward movement and the hooks ot' the latter over the adjacent parts ot' the rods 1 and 2 for the purpose stated..

18 is a ring secured centrally upon tripbar 15, the parts of the ring at opposite sides of the bar forming in effect, levers which will yield under weight imposed upon them by an animal and thus turn or tilt the bar as indicated in Fig. 2, until either of its ends 16 or 17 is raised above the plane of the adjacent arm 13, to permit the latter to spring outward and withdraw its hook 14E from engagement with the adjacent rod.

1t will be apparent by reference to Fig. 2, that if the bar 15 tilts as shown by the dotted lines, said figure, less movement is needed to withdraw the down-turned end 16 from the path ot outward movement of the adjacent arm 13, than would be required it said end 1G was not of right-angle-triangle torni, it being obvious that the end 17 in said tilting movement` will still be at the outer side of the arm 13 adjacent to it, but that the end 16 being withdrawn the trap will close anyway. Conversely if the bar 15 tilts in the opposite direction7 end 17 will be withdrawn from the path of outward movement of the adjacent arm 13, and permit the trap to close. 1t will thus be seen that the tripping of the trap is facilitated by providing the trip-bar 15 with reversely arranged right-angle-triangle down-turned ends.

The body of the trap consists preferably ot a netting 19 of any suitable material stretched over trip bar 15 and attached to the semicircular rods. For certain game, the netting may be of b aided cord. For other animals, it will be necessary that the body be made of flexible wire so that the animal cannot tear it and escape, and it will also be apparent that there must be sufficient slack in the body to permit the rods oit the trap to close together as indicated in Fig. One of the rods will be provided with a snap hook Q0, to automatically engage the. other and hold the trap in closed condition so that the animal cannot escape.

l1 he trap will be baited preferably within the ring. 18, so that an animal will be likely in attempting to reach the bait, to step upon the ring` 13. at one side or the other ot the trip-bar and thus spring the trap.

From the above description it will be apparent that 1 have produced an animal trap possessing the features ot advantage enumerated as desirable and which obviously may be modilied in minor particulars without departing trom the spirit and scope et the appended claims.

Having thus described the invention what l claim as new and desire to secure by Letters-Patent, is:

1. An animal trap, comprising a pair oit substantially semicircular rods hinged together attheir ends and adapted to be swung together or apart, yielding means tending to cause said rods to swing together` and arms provided with hooks capable ot being sprung over the adj acent rods to prevent them from swinging together; said arms each forming a spring terminal tor one o't said rods and the trip bar to hold said hooks in engagement with the said rods.

Q. An animal trz p, comprising a pair ot substantially semicircular rods arranged with their ends adjacent and each having a convolution at one end and. an outwardlyprojectingarm at the other, the arm of one extending centrally through the convolution ot' the other, oppositely-projecting terminalarms for said convolutions, provided with inturned hooks at their tree ends.A and diametrically-opposite spring hinges at the outer sides ot' said rods and encircling the outwardly-projecting arms, with their ends projecting in opposite directions and secured to the adjacent semicircular rods and the trip bar to hold said hooks in engagement with the said rods.

3. An animal trap, comprising a pair of substantially semicircular rods arranged with their ends adjacent and each having a convolution at one end and an outwardlyprojecting arm at the other, the arm o't one extending centrally through the convolution ot the other, spools mounted on said outwaidly-projecting arms and litting at their inner ends in said convolutions, and coiled hinge-springs mounted on said spools outward of said convolutions, the ends ot said springs extending in opposite directions and being secured to said semicircular rods to swing the same together when unresisted.

el.. An animal trap, comprising a pair oit substantially semicircular rods hinged together at their ends and adapted to swing together or apart, yielding means tending to cause said rods to swing together, arms at the outer sides of said rods, provided at their free ends with hooks to overlap adjacent rods, and a trip-bar adapted to bridge the trap and provided with downturned ends to engage the outer sides of said arms and hold them pressed inward with their hool; terminals overlying said adjacent rods.

5. An animal trap, comprising` a pair ot substantially semicircular rods hinged together at their ends and adapted to swing together or apart, yielding means tending to cause said rodsl to swing' together, arms at the outer sides of said rods, provided at their free ends With hooks to overlap adjuas to fold or unfold as the rods swing tocent rods, a, trip-bar adapted to bridge the gether or apart. 10 trap and provided with downturned ends to In testimony Whereo:` I affix my signature, engage the outer sides of said arms and hold in the presence of two Witnesses.

' theln ,pressed inward with their hook ter- JOHN MEYER.

ininals overlying said adjacent rods, and a Vitnesses: fabric body stretched loosely over said trip H. C. RODGERS, bar and secured to said seinioiroular rods so G. Y.'THORPE. 

